U.S. cracks its own six-pack

Saturday

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Barely two minutes into the game, Finnish goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff was staring at the ceiling in disbelief.

It turns out he was just getting started.

Ryan Malone raced into Finland’s zone, picked off Kiprusoff’s ill-advised pass and scored into an empty net. The rout was on.

What happened next in this semifinal jolted Canada Hockey Place: The Americans scored four times on Kiprusoff in a six-goal first period yesterday, surging into the Olympic gold-medal game. As the clock ran out, U.S. captain Jamie Langenbrunner led the celebration by banging his stick against the boards as his teammates hugged on the bench.

The U.S. will play Canada — which beat Slovakia 3-2 last night — tomorrow, 50 years to the day after capturing gold in 1960 at Squaw Valley, Calif.

“It was a crazy 12 minutes,” said forward Patrick Kane, who scored twice. “I’ve never been a part of something like that. It seemed like we were scoring every shift.”

It felt even longer to the Finns.

“The game is over after six minutes,” 39-year-old Finland forward Teemu Selanne said. “It was a long day and very disappointing.”

By the time Kiprusoff left the game 10:08 in, the U.S. had a 4-0 lead on only seven shots. The Calgary Flames goalie had allowed four goals total on 75 shots in three previous games, giving him the top save percentage in the tournament.

“No one is ever as good as they look. And no one is ever as bad as they look, either,” Langenbrunner said.

Kiprusoff’s day appeared to be over after Erik Johnson of the St. Louis Blues made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 8:36. That prompted Finnish Coach Jukka Jalonen to call timeout. Kiprusoff got a reprieve, but was back at the bench 1:32 later when Kane scored his first goal.

This time, Kiprusoff kept his mask on and marched straight down the tunnel toward the dressing room. Backup goalie Niklas Backstrom pulled off his baseball cap and took Kiprusoff’s place in the net.

Things didn’t go any better for him. Backstrom got beat twice on the first four shots he faced.

“We didn’t expect that in a million years,” U.S. defenseman Jack Johnson said. “I don’t think anyone did, especially when you get down to the final four, but it happened for us and we’re looking forward to Sunday.”

Kiprusoff had only himself to blame for the start of his misery. The U.S. cleared its zone with a nudge of the puck that sent it sliding slowly into the Finnish end. Phil Kessel raced after it and forced Kiprusoff to come way out of his crease. The goalie gently swept the puck away, but right onto the stick of Malone, who quickly fired a shot from the top of the left circle into the vacated net at 2:04 for his third goal of the Olympics.

Zach Parise made it 2-0 when he nestled a shot under the crossbar for a power-play goal at 6:22.

“We believed we could win a gold medal. Now we have the opportunity,” Langenbrunner said.

Canada edged the U.S. for gold during the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. The Americans (5-0) topped the host nation 5-3 to conclude preliminary play Sunday. On the same ice that the Canadian women beat the U.S. on Thursday to claim gold, sparking a controversial alcohol-and-cigar fueled celebration, Canada’s men will try win the most important gold of the Games to their countrymen.

So much for the Americans needing to ride the stellar play of Ryan Miller to win. Miller was relieved by Tim Thomas with 11:31 left in the game after stopping all 18 shots he faced. Miller had played every minute of the tournament until then.

“Everything we tried went their way,” Backstrom said. “We’ve been dreaming about gold for a long time, and now suddenly in 10 minutes it’s gone. It’s tough, but you don’t want to ever give up. You go out and play for your honor and your country.”

Finland will play Slovakia for bronze at 9 tonight.

Thomas allowed Antti Miettinen’s deflected goal with 5:14 left to spoil the U.S. bid for consecutive shutouts after a 2-0 quarterfinal win over Switzerland.

U.S. fans took a page from the host country’s supporters and alternated chants of “We Want Canada” and “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

“We haven’t won anything yet,” Parise said. “We’re getting better and that would be the most important and rewarding thing.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.